CHERUB: Dark Days
by Will Simpson
Summary: Scott is a grey shirt just out of Basic Training and Angelina Sill is an ordinary Navy Shirt so how are their futures intwined? Returning characters include Megan Summer, James Adams, Lauren Adams, Coral. Please R&R for more Chapters.
1. Chapter 1: Boys and Girls

**Cherub: Dark Days**

**Chapter 1: Boys and Girls**

CHERUB Campus was never busy but it sure as hell felt like it on this sweltering hot day in the middle of July. James Adams sat behind a slightly messy desk in the banana shaped Mission Control building. After all the years since James had been a cherub agent they still hadn't got the iris scanner working. Instead they had changed to keycards but not they changed to fingerprints and keycards at the same time to stop anyone from getting in. This is because a few years back a group of navy shirts got in and changed records of their missions so they got their black shirts, these kids were expelled immediately.

James sat behind the desk, he massive sweat marks on his back from the heat as the air conditioning in his office didn't work. He jumped slightly when the door swung open. He had arranged for newly appointed grey shirt, Scott Ross to come and get briefed on his first mission. Scott had heard about James. James had become a "legend" on campus. He accomplished this by cheating on every girlfriend he had, hitting on anything in a skirt and being a jammy git when it came to missions. You wouldn't have thought the man in his late 20's had been such a lady killer but his record spoke for itself.

Scott was intimidated by the now senior mission controller and sat slowly into his leather chair. He was more or less perched there but James didn't exactly mind.

"I can see your nervous" James Smiled. Scott blushed at how obvious it was.

"Just sit tight and listen up for this mission could get quite lengthy" James carried on to say.

Across on the other side of campus was Angelina Sill ran breathless around the running track. She had gotten 50 punishment laps a day for 1 week for copying her best friend, Abby Grassley's homework and then losing Abby's. Abby had laughed it off but their English teacher Mr Campbell hit the roof. He said it was un-Cherub like to copy homework when in reality all Cherubs copied homework from time to time. She could handle the running it was the fact all the boys took the piss out of her for it.

" Wanna copy my homework _beautiful!" _Her boyfriend, Harry Linch, cheered from the edge of the track. She just smiled and when she came round gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"I hate you sometimes" She smirked. They held hands all the way back to the main building. They both were on the 8th floor. Her room was next to the lift on the far end of building and she was knackered so she crashed in Harry's room for a bit. They were both 14 year old Navy shirts. Their relationship started on a mission in Russia were they ended up cuddling over hot chocolates and an open fire place. They snuggled on the sofa watching re runs of EastEnders.

Scott read through the briefing before looking at James and breaking into a huge smile.

"Thank you Sir" He beamed "I really,really appreciate being picked for this mission" James smiled at him, James knew this mission was going to be hard on the grey shirt but he thought Scott would be able to handle it. The mission would probably only last a month, 6 weeks top but James wanted Scott to feel good and told him it might be longer. Scott practically skipped out of James's office and onto the gravel path leading to the main building. He wanted to go through the mission briefing again and check he understood it all. His ear to ear grin when he got up to the 7th floor was un mistakable as his old Basic Training parter, Sophie Murphy, started to talk to him,

"Hey Scott" He had a massive crush on her ever since she helped him in Basic Training. She was as beautiful as 12 year olds can get, Long flowing blonde hair, Sparkling blue eyes, Perky breasts on the way and cute cheek bones to match. She was a nice girl but lost her temper very easily. But Scott was so thrown by her talking to him out of the blue he nearly fell over.

"Hey" He said meekly, Sophie caught this and grinned at him

"Scared of me or something or are you just not happy to see me" She sounded sad as she said this so Scott got worried

"No i love seeing you" He realized how eager he sounded and blushed. She smiled and hugged him.

"Don't get nervous around me" She said reassuringly. This made him more nervous but he enjoyed the hug and attention.

"So is it true you fancy me?" She asked quite casually. Scott's heart missed a beat and he it felt like he had been shot.

"Well, erm, the thing is..." He murmured "Maybe" His face went so red it was like looking at a big talking tomato. She grinned and kissed him slyly on the cheek and walked off as if nothing had happened. Scott lit up like a firework after a brief moment to think about it. He had just been kissed by the girl he loved!

A huge crack came from Harry's room. Angelina burst out of the room in tears. Madeline Sinclair was in the hall and was shocked by what she saw and heard. Madeline and Angelina were friends so instinctively she followed her into Angelina's room to comfort her.

Angelina was sniffling a lot as she shot words of distress and discomfort for Madeline to hear.

"Calm down" Madeline said soothingly "Start from the beginning" Angelina looked at her and nodded, she breathed slowly. Angelina usually composed herself within seconds so this must have been something bad. Her jet black hair ran over her eyes and looked a little ragged from the punishment, her brown eyes glazed over with tears and her cheeks red.

"He,He,he's been, ch,ch,cheating on me!" Angelina burst into tears again. Madeline shot back, she couldn't believe it,Why had Harry cheated on her? Who with? and for how long?

All these thoughts ran through her head. She held Angelina close and hugged her tightly, rocking back and forth slightly.

"How did you find out" She asked slowly trying to hold back her burning curiosity.

"He went to the bathroom" Angelina began "I saw his phone and he had a message, so i read it" Madeline realized where this was going instantly,

"It was from Susan, saying, Hey baby when you coming to my room xxx" Madeline couldn't think what to say. She just held her tighter.


	2. Chapter 2: Decisions

**Chapter 2: Decisions**

That night was a hall party for a girl Scott hardly knew but had been invited anyway, him and a couple of his mates were going. Gary Spencer and Ross Parkinson were his best mates ever since he had been recruited to CHERUB. Gary was a tall, muscular heartthrob for his age and he knew it. His ego was about as big as his head. Whereas Ross was quieter then Gary but a lot smarter, he was a genius in fact. He could hack most computers in a couple of minutes, beat any video game and could probably get into the pentagon in America if he tried hard enough. Unfortunately, he was fairly pale and with greasy black hair he wasn't a girl dream. The lads strolled down the hall to the party. Loads of Cherubs were there, 17 year old, black shirt Megan Summer, 13 year old, navy shirt Angelina and her friends Madeline and Harriet Beck; who Ross never stopped talking about, Sophie was there with some friends Scott didn't know. 14 year old navy shirt Coral Darko. The party was fairly big, spreading from Beth Randell's room out into the hall. Beth was turning 15 and was the oldest of Angelina's friends. Scott, Gary and Ross all stood around inside the party, Gary was chatting up some 15 year old's and failing, Ross was chatting to some other Navy shirts who he played chess with and Scott was left staring blankly at Sophie. She turned from catching up with a Black shirt girl called Katie, she was attractive to say the least but Scott didn't really care about her. He cared about Sophie. For months he had liked her and now she knew. Would she like him back? Would she reject him and laugh in his face? or worse, would she go out with Gary!

All these thoughts were giving him a bit of a headache and the booming music didn't help, He decided to head for his room. On his way out Sophie stepped in front of him, smiling and showing off her beautifully white teeth. She looked him in the eye and took his hand. She lead him into the hall and took a sharp right going further down. He knew she was going to her room as his was the other way. She got to her door and stopped. She looked at Scott.

"Want to come in?" She asked as if he had a choice. She had practically dragged him here but he didn't mind and he really liked Sophie. She lead him into the perfume heavy, not so surprisingly neat bedroom. She sat on the sofa and beckoned him to sit with her.

"So you got a mission?" She began " I'm gonna miss you while your gone" She sounded sad so Scott nervously put his arm around her back.

"Scott" She said "I've been meaning to tell you for literally ages that i..." She chocked on her words before she was able to get them out.

"I like you" She smiled and she said this and leaned and pecked Scott on the lips. Scott heart did a couple of backflips before settling down. When she pulled away, his jaw hit the floor, he couldn't think what to say.

"Wow" Was all he could think of.

Coral Darko was dancing with some friends at the party. She was getting bored so she went back to the her room to snuggle up under her duvet, she was exhausted after sessions in the dojo, Swimming practice and 3 hours of looking after red shirts. She only did this because when she was a red shirt Lauren Adams; James's younger sister, had looked after her and before she left CHERUB and had asked her to do the same. Coral missed Lauren deeply, when Coral was doing Basic Training Lauren had came back in for a reunion on campus and had slipped Coral a note with some encouragement. She had a tear welling up in her eye. She was still having nightmares from her last mission. Her friend had been shot by the mafia in Italy. Coral had been seeing the councilor to get over it but it hadn't helped. She had been E-mailing Lauren about it. The noise, the blood and the look on her friends face. Lauren was coming in from Australia where she lived with Greg "Rat" Rathbone. Then if that didn't help Coral was flying out there to stay with them for a couple of weeks. She settled down finally after 2 hours of tossing and turning. This state of tranquility was only short because she heard the noise of doors being kicked open and kids being dragged out of bed. This sort of thing happens every so often. Coral was relieved when they sailed past her bedroom. She heard some her friends kicking and screaming and realized the only people she could hear were grey shirts. She smiled under her duvet slyly.

Scott was dragged out of his room ruthlessly by two big white shirt lads. Bruce Norris had been a CHERUB when James and Lauren had been but was now a part time training instructor after having a small run as a UFC fighter. Bruce twisted Scotts arm back to near snapping point.

"Oww" Scott groaned. Bruce kicked him in the back of the knee. Bruce was ruthless with the CHERUBs now and almost 10 years ago. He push Scott out into the grass fields just near the main building. When Scotts eyes adjusted he realized he wasn't alone. Other Grey shirts were being rounded up. A training exercise he thought to himself. He was pushed into a truck with other grey shirts. He heard this sort of thing happened often enough. The most brutal one was ten years ago when James and the other black shirts had been rounded up and shot at while trying to make their way back to the main building. Thoughts of being shot at scared him and he began to shake. Only 2 hours ago he had kiss Sophie and now he was in the back of truck not knowing what he was doing. His mate Ross sat across from him.

"What do you think their gonna do?" He asked, you could tell by his voice that he was scared but then again they all were. Scott was about to speak when the truck screeched to a halt. He was throw into some of the other grey shirts.

Bruce swung the back of the truck open, behind him were a few black shirts, Megan Summer, Daniel Green and Heather Vinson. They all stood at ease with Bruce standing in front of them.

"Well, if it isn't the bees knees themselves!" Mr Pike shouted, he was getting older now and was on the wrong side of forty. Even at his age he could snap any of the grey shirts.

"Out of basic training, waiting for a mission" He carried on "You make me sick!" The grey shirts gulped.

"I got some black shirts and even brought in Bruce Norris himself" Mr Pike chuckled.

"We are gonna whip you into line and stop the slacking i have noticed in your fitness" He began to grin as each of the black shirts pulled rifles out from behind them. Scott stood frozen.

"Rules are simple. Don't get shot! If you get shot you will be forced to do 100 laps tomorrow morning!" He had a menacing look in his eyes as he swung a great big machine good full of simulated rounds.

"You will wear goggles and the clothes on your back, if you don't get shot consider yourself lucky" He smirked. Bruce readied them all with goggles, he then grabbed a rifle for himself.

"Your group 1" Bruce shouted. "Group 2 of grey shirts tomorrow and so on until we get to group 5, anyone who doesn't survive will be back for group 6 or should i say the pussy's night" He laughed. Mr Pike then shot three continuous bursts of his rifle into the air.

"Go!" He bellowed.

Scott darted for the tree line and down into a ditch, he was followed by Ross and a kid called Simon Beck. Scott thought hard to concentrate over the gun fire and screaming of some of the younger grey shirts.

"Best shot is to try and get back to the main building and wait it out" Ross whispered. Simon was only 11 and was crapping himself. He was breathing heavily. Scott tried to calm him down by putting his hand on his shoulder and smiling gently at him. He calmed down enough for them to plan out their way of getting to the main building.

"Okay on follow my lead" Scott said sternly. He made a finger motion. Three. Two. One.

Go.


	3. Chapter 3: Pain

**Chapter 3: Pain**

Scott darted from tree to tree, ducking and dodging. He slid into another ditch they had spotted for a meet up point if it their plan didn't go smoothly. Unfortunately, his leg caught on a thorn and tore into his leg. Scott's mouth was covered by Ross's hand milliseconds before he could scream in pain. Bullets soared around near their heads. Simon was being shot at but he was running as fast as his short, stubby legs would carry him. He catapulted himself over a log on the floor into a massive pile of mud. He skidded for 2 meters before crashing shoulder first into a tree! His body crumpled to the floor after a loud crunching noise. His shoulder was broken or severely hurt. Scott and Ross realized this and before going to help him, Mr Pike came up too him to inspect the damages. Scott nudged Ross and told him to follow him. They crept behind the instructor and a black shirt, hoping to gain some ground while the bullets would be stopped momentarily. Staying crouched they made it a good 20 meters away from Mr Pike. A shot whizzed past them. It came so close Scott felt it brush against his bare arm. They both instantly turned around to find their assailant. Megan Summers came diving out of a bush and running full pelt at the two boys. Her dark hair was tied back and her face was smeared with mud and she had a cut on her exposed arm that indicated she had chased someone through a bush. She looked tired, annoyed and like she would do anything to bring them down! Ross dived to the left as more bullets rained down on them. Scott took a few seconds too realize what was happen and only because Ross knocked him off his feet did he escape the torrent of bullets. He leapt to his feet in one swift movement, pivoted on his heel and made a mad dash for some cover.

Scott ran straight into the main football fields, they could have been flooded but luckily they weren't. He ran, nearly slipping many times but he didn't care. If he stopped a simulated bullet would be up his arse faster then you could say ouch.

Ross on the other hand had slipped out of Megan's sight and was approaching the main building. He only had about a 5 minute walk as the bird flies but he would need to sneak round and slip into the building undetected. One problem he could see Bruce! If he caught him he would have to do this again! He thought about it for a few minutes before deciding that sneaking up on Bruce and knocking him out was the only option. If it went wrong Bruce would snap him like a twig. Ross wasn't the strongest or the faster and Bruce had a mean streak, not to mention he was also known in his day for being a martial arts expert and with age that hadn't faltered. Ross scrambled around on all fours inside a bush looking for a big stone which was also smooth. He hands raced around on the floor looking for a stone. Sweat was starting to pour down his face, his heart sunk when he realized there was no stones! One on one with Bruce would be like jumping head first into a saw! He was 26; short for his age but still a mountain compared to Ross, a martial arts expert, ruthless and could probably kill him in 57 different ways if he wanted to. What was he going to do?

Scott was still in "No mans land" and needed some cover desperately. Megan was still hot on his tail and the only building close by was the library. More of Megan's shot flew over his head. Scott wondered why she hadn't took up a shooting position yet. This thought rolled through his mind for a only a few seconds before shots began flying past his head! He ran passed a bush and did a sideways roll to get behind it before Megan got another shot it. The library would be no good if she was close behind so he had to lose her and fast. He crawled on all fours to the left of the bush as Megan was coming around the right hand side of it gun poised. Scott managed to get on the other side of the bush while Megan stood there in shock wondering where Scott had gone. He planned to try and crawl away but he saw more people cutting it across the woods so he tried to get Megan to go after them. He rattled the bush so she would look over. Scott sat there for what felt like an eternity, waiting. Waiting for Megan to go past. He closed his eyes tight and tried to not move a muscle.

Megan cautiously crept round the bush keeping her gun's stock cemented into her shoulder, ready to shoot at anything that moved, the bush shook behind her so she instantly span round and spotted 2 grey shirts running across the field at full pelt. She got down on one knee and poised her rifle. She shot two well aimed shots that hit the grey shirt in the knee and the hip. The grey shirt crumpled to the floor, urging her partner on. Megan smiled evilly to herself. She leapt from her crouching position to running at a full sprint in a matter of seconds. Scott was astonished at how fit she was and how she didn't even mind being up at an ungodly hour of the morning. He wondered if he would be like that when he was older. How successful would his CHERUB career be?

Ross still crouched in the bush waiting for a time to strike. He had a plan, well sort of. He was going to lunge for Bruce's rifle when he let his guard down for a second then shoot Bruce and run like hell! It wasn't much of a plan but it was all he had. He breathed heavily, blink hard and holding his hand in the form of a fist. He was tense. One slip up and Bruce would if not kill him, he would certainly hurt him. Bruce's left hand glided off his rifle slowly so he could each his thigh. Ross lunged out of the bush instantly. He grab the barrel of the gun and tipped it upwards, while sweeping Bruce's legs away from him and wrenching at the gun to pull it away. Bruce had a grip like a vice. Ross dug his fingers into Bruce's s, he nails penetrated Bruce's skin making him recoil in pain.

"You little fucker!" He screamed. Bruce let the gun go and used all his strength to launch an explosive double footed kick into Ross's ribcage. Ross was thrown back, he was winded but still holding the gun. He clutched it to his chest as Bruce moved in to finish him off. Ross rolled on his to his knees and shot wildly at Bruce. Bruce fell to the floor gripping his leg, he had been shot from less then 2 meters away from a simulated round.

"Your so dead you little runt!" Bruce was shouting. Ross tried to run away but Bruce grabbed his leg and pulled back with all his might slamming Ross's face hard into the ground! Ross's nose made a loud crunch and blood exploded from his nostrils all over the floor. He kicked at Bruce trying not to get pinned down and hit him square in the face. Bruce fell back but quickly recovered. Bruce threw a wildly strong punch right into where he had kicked Ross moment earlier. Ross almost went down again but stayed up for his own sake. He shot Bruce in the back as soon as he got partially free. Bruce yelped in pain again. he had completely lost it. He was basically foaming from his mouth. Ross ran away at full pelt. He didn't realize what he had just done. He, Ross Parkinson had taken down the best martial arts CHERUB agent in the last 20 years. He had a grin on his face that stretched from ear to ear. Unfortunately, he still had to get back to the main building but with a rifle in his hands he could probably manage that.


End file.
